Display and carrying package for merchandise



DISPLAY AND CARRYING PACKAGE FOR MERCHANDISE Filed NOV. 9, 1956 J. F. HAGAR Feb. 2, 1960 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 ATTORNEYS- Feb. 2, 1960 J. F. HAGAR 2,923,401

DISPLAY AND CARRYING PACKAGE FOR MERCHANDISE Filed Nov. 9, 1956 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 F 1 Z INVENTOR JG. 3' J HN F H4644?)- United States PatentO DISPLAY AND CARRYING PACKAGE FOR MERCHANDISE John F. Hagar, Dayton, Ohio, assignor, by mesne assignments, to Diamond National Corporation, a corporation of Delaware Application November 9, 1956, Serial'No. 621,375

'5 Claims. ((21. 206-4533) My invention relates to packages for merchandise and more particularly to a combined display and carrying package by. means of which articles of merchandise may be conveniently displayed on the countersor shelves for inspection by a prospective customer and the same package utilized as a convenient means for carrying or transporting merchandise purchased by the customer.

My invention will find particular utility in the packaging of merchandise for self-service stores and for use during sales in department stores and the likefwhere the sales personnel is required to handle a far larger than normal number of customers. The utility of the device is not, however, limited. to. the aforementioned uses and it will find wide spread application in thedisplay. packaging of diverse types of merchandise for normal customer consumption.

It is a principal object of my invention to provide a combined display and carrying package in which one or more articles of merchandise may be conveniently displayed, the package at the same time incorporating a handle structure by means of which it may be readily carried by the purchaser.

A further object of my invention isthe provision of a package structure composed essentially ofa cardboard or paperboard stiffener to which one or more articles of merchandise are secured and the assembly. so formed enclosed in a bag or wrapper formed from transparent material, such as any of the non-fibrousV-fil'ms.

Still a further object of myinventionis theprovision of a package of the character, described wherein the merchandise supporting stiffener incorporates a handle element adapted to project, beyond the. enclosing bag or wrapper so that the package. maybe conveniently carried.

Still a further object of my invention is the provision of a stiffening element of the character described which incorporates integrally formed merchandise holding and supporting means effective to retain themerchandise on the stiffener in display position.

Yet another object of my invention is theprovision of a package structure composed of a. flexible, transparent bag and a stiffening element for said bag, said stiffening element being'formed from paperboard and incorporating as an integral part thereof a carrying handle for the packaging structure and article engaging and supporting means for engaging and supporting one or more articles on the body of the stiffener.

The foregoing together with additional objects of my invention which will be set forth hereinafter or which will be apparent to the skilled worker in the art upon reading these specifications, I accomplish by those constructions and arrangements of parts of which I shall now describe certain exemplary embodiments.

Reference is now made to the accompanying drawings wherein:

Figure 1 is a plan view of ablank for a stiffening element in; accordance with my invention,

Figure 2 is a perspective view showing the stiffening Federated Feb. '2, 1960 ice 2. element of Figure 1 inassembled condition together'with an article of merchandise engaged thereby and the bag or wrapper into which the assembly is to be placed;

Figure'3 is a perspective view illustrating the assembled package.

Figure 4 is a vertical sectional view taken along the line 4-4 of Figure 3.

Figure 5 is a partial plan view of an alternate form of stiffening element; p

'Figure 6 is a fragmentary perspective view illustrating the stiffening element of Figure Sin erected condition.

Figure 7 is also a fragmentary perspective view illustrating a collar engaging. tab formed in the stiffening element of Figure 5.

Figure 8 is a plan view of yet another form. of stiffening element. 7

Figures 9, 10 and 11 are perspective views illustrat ing the wrapping of; the stiffener and its contents as opposed to their insertion in a bag. 1

Figure 12 is a sectional view taken. along the line 12-12 of Figure 11'. V

Figure 13' is a rearelevationafview illustrating an alternative construction wherein the wrapper and" the stiffening element are" integrally joined together.

Figure 14 is a sectional. view taken along the line i l-1470f Figure 13'.

Referring now to Figure 1. of" the. drawings, 1" have therein illustrated a stiffening element formed from paperboard or boxboardsuitably cut and scored to'lp'rovide a body panel lfterminating at'its lower end inian article supporting flange 2 traversed. by. a plurality of spaced. apart score li'nesf3" by means of which the width of' the flange may be altered to fit the conditions of use; At its upper endthe body panel l'carries' a centrally disposed handle element 411having' a. handhole opening. 5; and preferably the handle element. 4 will have articulated thereto a reinforcinghandle element 411. Located to each' side. of'thehandle" elements are article engaging .tongues'd and 7"having slits: 8" and 9 formed'therein.

In Figure 2, I. have. shown the stiffening element. of Figure 1 in, article engaging position. In'this' instance, the article engaged is a. sweater. which has been folded into generallylrectangular form and laid onthe' body panel [of the stiffener. The articlesupportingflange 2 at the bottom of the stiffener has beenfolded out wardly so as to form a; base. or bottom support" for the sweater 10 and additionallyfolded along one of the score lines 3 to provide. a frontflangeporti'on? 11': overlying the lower marginal edge of the sweater I01} At the opposite end of the stiffening element; the handle elements 4" and 4a have been juxtaposed with the interposition of adhesive therebetween, thereby providing a reinforced carrying handle. Alternatively, the

handle elements may be stapled, stitched" or otherwise secured together. In addition, the article engaging tongues 6 and7' have been infolded with edge portions of the sweater ltl'engaged in the slits 8 and9; thereby supporting the sweater in display position on thestif fening element.

The assembled stiffening element and-sweater=is next enclosed in a suitable bag or wrapper. In the embodiment illustrated the assembly is insertedin a flexible, bag, such bag beingindicated generally a't t' 121m Figure 2; As best seen' in Figures 3 and4, thetbagzwill be of a. size to just'nicely receive the stiffeningxelerrient and the article supportedthereon; and'thesmouth'of the bag will terminate substantially coextensive with 'the upper edge of the body panel 1 so-that the..handle'. element 4' will project freelytherebeyond.

stitute a limitation on my invention and it maybe formed I as a tube having a transverse seam at the bottom thereof, or it may have a fiat bottom with or without gussets in the walls thereof. Preferably, the bag will be formed in its entirety from a transparentnon-fibrous film, such as cellophane and it is desirable that it have heat. scaling properties so that it may be. closed across its top by a simple heat seal operation, such closure seam being illustrated at 13 in Figures 3 and 4. Alternatively, the mouth of the bag may be closed by an adhesive seam or it may be stapled, stitched or otherwise secured together to'close the package. In any event, the handle element will be permitted to project freely beyond the bag, as will be clearly apparent from Figures 3 and 4 of the drawings. It may also be observed that the bag may be formed in two parts, the front wall 14 (Figure 4) being formed from a transparent material whereas the rear wall 15 may be formed from an opaque material which may or may not be of the same character as the frontwall. 'Thus, the bag could be formed in 'part of a transparent non-fibrous film and in part of kraft paper or the like, if so desired, the mode of sealingthe top of the bag being dependent upon the nature and character of the bag forming materials employed.

In Figure 5, I have illustrated a modified form of my stiffening element wherein the upper end of the body panel 1 is provided with a pair of article engaging tabs 16 and 17 having defiectable fingers 18 and 19 formed therein. In addition, the handhole opening 5 is extended into the body panel 1 and its lower extremity is defined by a deflectable flap member 20. As best seen in Figure 6, the tabs, such as the tab'17, may be folded to overlie an article 21 which itself is provided with a fold or pleat 22 positioned so as to beengaged by the deflectable fingers, such as the finger 19 carried by the tab 17, thereby securing the article in place on the body element. Similarly, as seen in Figure 7, the deflectable flap member formed in the body panel. 1 'may be used a's a support engageable, for example, between the inner and outer folds of a shirt collar 23.

In Figure 8, I have illustrated yet another modification of stiffening element wherein, the article engaging tongues or tabs 24 and 25 are articulated to the side edges of the body panel 1 rather than to the top edges thereof. While this arrangement does not effect the substantial savings inboard realized where the article engaging elements lie immediately adjacent the handle elements, the arrangement nevertheless provides the desired article-engaging and supportingfeature and by. nesting adjacent blanks a savings inmaterial can still be obtained.

Instead of fitting the assembly of stiffening element and contents into a bag, it isalso within the spirit of my invention to wrap the assembly in a sheet of cellophane. While such wrapping may be accomplished in a number of ways, Figures'9 through 12 of the drawings illustrate a preferred mode of wrapping wherein the stiffening element 25 and its contents 26jare placed on a rectangular sheet of cellophane 26 in substantially the manner illustrated, whereupon the cellophane is folded over in the manner seen in Figure 10, thereby sandwiching the assembly between the'foldedlsides of the cellophane sheet. The sheet thus has a rear side 27a and a front side 27b. With the sheet brought to the position of Figure 10, the upper edges thereof may then be folded over in the manner illustrated by the arrow A, thereby bringing the upper edge of the sheet to the position illustrated inFigure 11, the folded over portion 28 being secured, as by adhesive, to the portion 27a of the wrapper. If desired, the lapped upper edges ofthe portions 27a and'27b'may be heat sealed or adhesively secured together prior to theirfolding. Similarly, the opposite sides of the wrappers may be infolded, as indicated by the arrow B (Figure 10), thereby causing them to overlie 'the rear portion 27a of the wrapper, as seen at 29 and "30 in Figure 12. The folded. over portions 29and 30 may be. adhesively secured or, if desired, they may be secured by strips of tape or the like, indicated at 31 and 32.

Alternatively, as illustrated in Figures 13 and 14, the stiffening element 33 and contents 34 may be assembled as before, whereupon a sheet of cellophane or similarnon-fibrous material 35 having dimensions somewhat in excess of the dimensions of the stiffening element is placed on top of the assembly, as indicated in dotted lines in Figure 14, whereupon the marginal edges of the sheet 35 are folded aboutthe top, bottom and side edges of the st'ufening element and secured to the rear surface thereof. The sheet 35 is thus secured to the stiffening element 33 by the opposed marginal portions 36 and 37 of the sheet 35, the bottom marginal portion 38, and the top marginal portions39, 40 and 41. The stiffening element 33 and liner 35 thus, in effect, provide a baglike structure one wall of which is formed from paperboard and incorporates the carrying handle 42 as an integral part thereof.

Additional modifications may, of course, be made in my invention without departing from the spirit of it and I do not intend to be limited in its scopeexcepting as set forth in the claims which follow. Itmay be observed, for example, that variously configured locking tab. and tongue arrangements may be provided depending upon the nature of the "article or articles. to be packaged. Having, however, described my invention in certain exemplary embodiments, what I desire to secure and protect by Letters Patent is:

1. A display and carrying package for merchandise comprising in combination a paperboard stiffening element'comprising a body panel, a handle elementextending from said body panel at one end thereof, a pair. of

article engaging tongues integrally connected with said body panel at one end thereof andpositioned on opposite sides of said handleelement at said one end, said tongues extending in generally overlying relationship to. said body panel and each tongue having a slit extending inwardly from the opposed edges thereof an article positionedon said paperboard stitfeningelement and overlying a part of each tongue bounded by the slittherein, the other part of each tongue overlying said article the opposite end of said body panel having an article supporting base flange, said stiffening element beingjenclosed in. an envelope with the handle projecting therefrom, whereby said article is held between the two parts of each tongue and the article tends to urge the parts of thetongues that are in underlying relation thereto against the said body panel. p I

2. A display and carrying package for merchandise comprising in combination a paperboard stiffening element comprising a body panel, a handle element extending from said body panel at one end thereof, a pair of article engaging tongues integrally connected with said body panel at one end thereof and positioned .on opposite sides of said handle element at said one end, said tongues extending in generally overlying relationship to said body panel and each tongue having a slit extending inwardly from theopposed edges thereof, an article positioned on said paperboard stiffening element and overlying a part of each tongue bounded by the slit therein, the other part of each tongue overlying said article, the opposite end of said body paneljhaving an article supporting base flange, whereby said article is held between the two parts of each tongue and the article tends to urge the parts of the tongues that are in underlying relation thereto against the said body panel.

3. A display and carrying package for merchandise comprising in combination a paperboard stiffening element comprising a body panel, a handle element extending fromsaid body panel at oneend thereof, a pair of article engaging tongues integrally connected with said body panel at one end thereof and positionedon opposite sides of said handle element at said one end, said tongues extending in generally overlying relationship to said body panel and each tongue having a slit extending inwardly from the opposed edges thereof, an article positioned on said paperboard stiffening element and overlying a part of each tongue bounded by the slit therein, the other part of each tongue overlying said article, whereby said article is held between the two parts of each tongue and the article tends to urge the parts of the tongues that are in underlying relation thereto against the said body panel.

4. A display and carrying package for merchandise comprising in combination a paperboard stiffening element comprising a body panel, a handle element extending from said body panel at one end thereof, a pair of article engaging tongues integrally connected with said body panel adjacent one end thereof and positioned on opposite sides of said handle element adjacent said one end, said tongues extending in generally overlying relationship to said body panel and each tongue having a slit extending from a margin thereof, an article positioned on said paperboard stiffening element and overlying a part of each tongue bounded by the slit therein, the other part of each tongue overlying said article, whereby said article is held between the two parts of each tongue and the article tends to urge the parts of the tongues that are in underlying rela-.

tion thereto against the said body panel.

5. The package of claim 4, and additional means for holding said article on said element.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,691,306 Rosen Nov. 13, 1928 1,720,679 Karn July 16, 1929 1,731,996 Appelbaum Oct. 15, 1929 1,885,205 Johnson Nov. 1, 1932 1,923,452 Neumiller Aug. 22, 1933 1,962,121 Blumenstock June 12, 1934 2,043,419 Robinson June 9, 1936 2,077,694 Hinton Apr. 20, 1937 2,168,387 Bellin Aug. 8, 1939 2,266,115 Beckman Dec. 16, 1941 2,463,992 Moore Mar. 8, 1949 2,748,929 Iverson June 5, 1956 2,782,908 Mofiett Feb. 26, 1957 

